NORTH Vancouver and Burnaby are simply too different to be mashed together into one federal electoral riding, a committee of MPs in Ottawa has concluded.
Seeking to add six new House of Commons seats for the province, the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission recommended earlier this year that a new riding made up of North Vancouver east of the Seymour River and the northern portion of Burnaby be melded into a new riding called Burnaby North-Seymour.
But the proposal has been fought by Kennedy Stewart, NDP MP for Burnaby-Douglas, on the grounds that the proposed change is unpopular on both sides of Burrard Inlet and that communities are too different and isolated to have one MP adequately represent the interests of both.
"He indicated that North Burnaby was a middle class community with a high percentage of new Canadians, while North Vancouver had a low percentage of new Canadians and a much higher average income," the standing committee on procedure and house affairs wrote in its report. "Very few links existed between the service providers in either community and their respective municipalities. Indeed each community had its own health authority."
The committee, which is made up of seven Conservatives, one Liberal and four New Democrats, seemed to agree.
"North Vancouver and North Burnaby appear to the committee to be two communities which share few common services or exchanges. The communities themselves also appear to have little desire, if any, to be tied in one electoral district," it concludes.
Under the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act, every riding should have a population of about 105,000 residents according to census data tracked every 10 years. As of the 2011 census, the North Shore's two ridings were about 70,000 people over that limit.
The report is welcomed by Stewart, who is now optimistic the ridings can be redrawn again to keep the North Shore and Burnaby apart.
"It supports the opinions and sentiment of communities on both sides of the Burrard Inlet. There were very loud and clear voices from Burnaby and the North shore that this is a mistake," Stewart said.
Had the 2011 election used the proposed new boundaries, Stewart and the NDP would have lost his seat by about five percentage points, a seven-point swing from results that sent him to Ottawa, he said. But Stewart added he did not take up the fight for partisan purposes,
"It's cross-party now. We've heard from the NDP. We've heard from former Liberals . . . and now a Conservative-dominated committee has also said they think this is a mistake."
The report will now be sent back to the commission for a second look and possible redrawing.
"Other commissions across the country have had similar direction and they've gone back and made changes," Stewart said.
